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THURSDAY

STONE SOUR

Everyone knows how deeply the-editor-in-chief of Metal-Rules.Com dislikes and detests Slipknot, right ? How much are these Slipknot bashers aware of Corey Taylor’s other band Stone Sour. Presumably most of people not having dared to check them out. All right Stone Sour’s stuff can be decribed a mix of a modern hard rock meets the latest Anthrax stuff. Seriously the material sounded tremendous great and above all, believe it or not, Corey Taylor is definitely a fantastic singer and has a huge stage charisma. He definitely knows how to control the audience like making them do a real stupid looking bod or hip dance style. As a matter of fact it looked hilarious. In general the band sounded tight and great. Despite the loss of Paul Gray, both Taylor and Roots deserve the great respect for getting on the tour to please the audience with the material of Stone Sour.

3,5/5

Mission Statement

Reborn

Made Of Scars

The Bitter End

Blotter

Your God

Through Glass

Idle Hands

Digital

Get Inside

Hell & Consequences

30/30-150

TREAT

Sweden’s own hard rock heroes Treat returned from hiatus a few years ago and earlier this year they finally released a new album called COUP DE CRACE which is their first studio album in 18 years. The band took the stage and opened their show with two new tracks “The War Is Over” and “All in All” before it was time to go back in time and do “Ready for the Taking” from the classic ORGANIZED CRIME album. The rest of the set was a good combination of new and old material. Singer Robert Ernlund has a good hard rock voice and there was nothing wrong with the rest either but maybe the band should re-think if they really want to look like cousins of Steel Panther on stage?

2/5

The War Is Over

All In

Ready for the Taking

Papertiger

Changes / Rev It Up / Party All Over / Too Wild

We Own The Night

Roar

Soul Survivor

Get You On The Run

Conspiracy

Skies Of Mongolia

World Of Promises

MOTHER’S FINEST

Mother’s Finest, the real forefathers of funk rock, had the misfortune (as many, many other bands on this year’s festival too) to play in the pouring rain as seen in the pictures below. But the Georgia band really managed to put on a top notch show, caring less about the rain and opening with five straight hard rock numbers before launching into some more funk oriented material. It seemed that many people were took by surprise how hard Mother’s Finest rocked and on top of it there was some excellent singing by many members of the group.

3/5

Y&T

Dave Meniketti and company returned again to Swedenrock. This was the bands third performance here within the past six years but this time it was going to be a little different not least because there’s a brand new Y & T studio album FACEMELTER just released. Classic tune “Black Tiger” opened the game. The band sounded really tight and got a really good and noisy response from the crowd although it had started to rain heavily just before they started. “On with the Show” from FACEMELTER was next and it seemed like the fans did know the newer material as well. Old MEANSTREAK classic “Lonely Side of Town” went over great before it was time for a true surprise – a splendid version of the old DIO classic “Rainbow In The Dark”. That for sure was an emotional moment for many people there. Dave and co literally nailed the song with great respect for late Ronnie (R.I.P). A couple of more FACEMELTER tracks were played later on but the main set was based on early classics like “Meanstreak”, “Open Fire”, “I Believe in You” and “Forever”. Special mention again for the excellent playing and vocals from Meniketti and also overall the whole band put on a really strong performance and the Y&T show was definitely one of the highlights of the festival.

4,5/5

Black Tiger

On with the Show

Lonely Side of Town

Rainbow in the Dark

Meanstreak

Shine on

I Believe in You

Open Fire

Eyes Of A Stranger

I’m coming home

Dirty Girl

Rescue Me

Forever

PRETTY MAIDS

It surely wasn’t an easy decision for Pretty Maids to step in just few days before the festival started and replace RATT on the main stage but fortunately they agreed to do it. Ronnie Atkins, Ken Hammer and the guys have played Swedenrock several times in the past but always in smaller stages so this was perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity not just to promote the band’s new PANDENOMIUM –album but also to reach some larger audiences here. The band headed on stage at 04:30 PM and opened up with a string of tracks from their new PANDENOMIUM –album. The title track of the bands previous WAKE UP TO TH REAL WORLD disc followed but it wasn’t before the fifth song “The Scream” before audience started to warm up and really get into show. Ronnie Atkins worked really hard and the band soon launced into classics like: “We Came to Rock”, “Back To Back” and “Rodeo” the atmosphere was really good. One of the highlights was when he announced “Please Don’t Leave Me”, originally a Phil Lynott (R.I.P) song, which was a huge hit in Sweden in the 90’s. Band was smart enough to play lots of classics instead of concentrating only newer material. There were four tracks included from both FUTURE WORLD and RED HOT AND HEAVY –albums. Ronnie and Ken proved that there’s still plenty of life left on Pretty Maids and special mention for bassist Hal Patino (King Diamond). This must have been really strange situation for him to play here after just joining band few weeks ago and also… Pretty Maids is quite far from what he has used to play for several years with King…

3/5

Pandemonium

I.N.V.U.

Wake Up To The Real World

Little Drops Of Heaven

Scream

Queen of Dreams

Final Day Of Innocence

Walk Away

We Came To Rock

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi [Carmina Burana]

Back To Back

Rodeo

Please Don’t Leave Me

Love Games

Future World

Red, Hot And Heavy

DEATH ANGEL

The long time Bay Area thrashers travelled all the way from Say Francisco for two European festival dates. The first stop was at the Swedenrock fest, where the five piece unleashed a fiery old thrash metal gig. The frontman raged and spun his dreadlocks with intensive drive thru the whole gig. The set fairly was balanced to have the old songs from the older albums and of course the newer material. Death Angel is known for being an ultimate kickass band on the stage. They didn’t make any exception as for that. The guitarist Rob Cavestany and Ted Aguilar sounded extreme ripping lethal. The new recruited member, the bassist Damien Sisson, looked like the young Cliff Burton. The drummer Will Carroll has become a permanent member of Death Angel, giving a new level to the sounds of thrash of what Death Angel stands for. As for the audience, the Swedish audience truly sometimes sucks for sure. They did absolutely nothing, just starring at the band and eating junk food and drinking beer. Whenever Death Angel or any other thrash band visits Finland, there is always wild pits and kids going crazy in the audience. The Swedish crowd is eccentric for sure.

4 / 5

BLACKBERRY SMOKE

This southern rock band hailing from Atlanta, Georgia has a good future ahead of them it seems.Their second album LITTLE PIECE OF DIXIE was released just last year and now they played SRF for the first time. A rather large crowd gathered to witness their show on the DIO stage.The set included songs from both their albums with the new songs going down just as good as those from the first album BAD LUCK AIN’T NO CRIME. For a fun fact it can be mentioned that their friend Chris Robinson (of The Black Crowes) actually came up with their band name.

SLAYER

Slayer had to cancel the gig a day before the Swedenrock fest. However the spokesman of Swedenrock rushed to announced the Slayer gig will happen as planned in the first place. Obviously Tom Araya had suffered from serious throat problems resulting in the cancellation. The aftermath caused by the surgery was obvious. He didn’t spin his head at all, even though he was about to start the helicopter headbanging during "Raining The Blood". For one reason or another Slayer made some mistakes playing, apparently the sounds on the stage weren’t very good. All in all Slayer wasn’t in top form even though the Swedish press praised the gig afterwards. As for the audience, the audience was nothing, but utter lazy and dull, no pits, no chaos and mayhem. Instead just starring at, eating pizza and the drinking beer. Talk about a dead crowd. The set had been created to cover both the new and of course the old classic songs such as "Hell Awaits". Hopefully Slayer won’t face these problems when playing in Finland in August.

2 / 5

World Painted Blood

Hate Worldwide

Cult

Disciple

War Ensemble

Expendable Youth

Jihad

Beauty Through Order

Seasons in the Abyss

Hell Awaits

Mandatory Suicide

Chemical Warfare

Raining Blood

Aggressive Perfector

South of Heaven

Silent Scream

Angel of Death

‘

JORN

Jorn Lande and his JORN released their 6th studio album SPIRIT BLACK this year, once again an excellent album. Jorn also released with Masterplan their comeback album a few weeks before this years’ festival. A tour from them can be expected in the fall at the earliest. Tonight though the focus was 100% on JORN and nothing else. A really tight and visually perfect set was seen. Jorn has sometimes been accused of having a tad too many covers in his set, this was absolutely not the case here. The sole cover song tonight was “Are You Ready” from Thin Lizzy, featured on the album THE DUKE from 2006. During the last song of the set “War of the world“ a few lines were sung from “Man on the silver mountain” as a fitting tribute to the late and great Ronnie James Dio. Most of the songs in the set were taken from their most recent albums including the excellent LONELY ARE THE BRAVE from 2008. JORN got the ‘headlining’ slot at the sweden stage which suited them perfectly. This was by the way their first apperance at SRF, way overdue!

4/5

Road of the Cross

Shadow People

Below

We Brought The Angels Down

Stormcrow

Spirit Black

The Inner Road

Man of the Dark

Blacksong

Guitar solo (Tore Moren)

Tungur Knivur

Guitar solo (Tor Erik Myhre)

Rock and Roll Angel

Drum solo (Willy Bendiksen)

Soul of the Wind

Are You Ready

War of The World

DANZIG

Danzig hasn’t been that active during the past years. It had taken app. six years since CIRCLE OF SNAKES saw the light of day. The newest opus DETH RED SABAOTH kind of made Glen Danzig return back to the limelight. Metal-Rules.Com was supposed to interview Glen Danzig, but surprisingly it got cancelled by the delayed schedule. However Danzig wasn’t late when getting on the stage. The legend was truly in a good shape. His voice was amazing , having no weak parts or moments. The night’s set was definitely godly as it covered a wide range of all time Danzig classics as well as the newer material off the newest album. Glen Danzig moved with raging passion on the stage and enjoyed chatting with the audience a little bit. As for these good old as “Dirty Black Summer”, “Long Way Back From Hell” “Twist Of Cain” “Tired Of Being Alive”. Danzig was excellent from the beginning to the end. Hopefully he will launch a major European tour to support the new album.

4,5/5

MAYHEM

Black Metal has got more and more space on the roster of the Swedenrock fest. For example Watain, Behemoth and Mayhem presented the more extreme section at the fest. Mayhem deserved to have a slot at Swedenrock as their reputation for being one of pioneers of that genre is known. The singer Attila stepped on the stage with the obscure bloody mask and a rope in his hand. Even though the band has undergone changes, however both Morfeus and Silmaeth created the ultimate nihilistic soundscape. The drummer HellHammer’s drumsounds were as massive and clear as usual at the Mayhem gigs. Musically the gig was totally pure mayhem and nihilism from the beginning to the end with Attila’s brutal and deep growling.

3/5

AEROSMITH

Aerosmith has lately been in headlines for other than musical reasons. In August of 2009 singer Steven Tyler accidentally fell off the stage and broke his shoulder and the band had to cancel the rest of thier tour. Since there have been many rumors and speculations about the bands future. At one point Steven was going to leave for a solo career while the rest of the band announced that they were seeking a new front man. There was also speculation about Steven’s possible drug use and the list goes on and on but after all, in March of 2010 band announced their new world tour under banner: COCKED, LOADED, READY TO ROCK. Aerosmith now returned to Swedenrock after a three year break and for sure there were tens of thousands of pairs of eyes following how the band is now doing after facing all those problems.

“Love in an Elevator” opened the show followed with “Back in the Saddle”. A cover version of Thomas Rufus’s classic “Walkin’ the Dog” followed and worked fine as well. Next the band did a string of the bands 90’s hits: “Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees”, “Livin’ on the Edge” and “Jaded which made especially younger fans happy. Band sounded overall good there although all songs were played a little slower that usually. What was good to notice here was that Steven Tyler was still his typical himself. He was jumping across the stage and posing for photographers. He was wearing his typical clothing: big sun classes, big hat and tons of silk crafts tied in microphone stand. There was nothing wrong with his vocals either, he mostly sounded pretty good there. Guitarist Joe Perry was looking very classy and his playing was as perfect as always. There was really funny new part included in the show after “Lord of the Things” when Joe was playing against his Guitar Hero character. Of course everybody knows who won that “battle”… Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer haven’t changed at all over the years but what on earth has happened to Brad Whitford? He was wearing a full-length brown leather jacket with high collars, huge face covering sunglasses and some kind of head covering hat. Well he succeed covering because the audience could only see part of his chin and cheeks during the show. On performing wise, he stood like a mummy on his side on stage for the whole show. Some people did speculate if it even was him on stage?

After all those speculations this was still a good and enjoyable show. There was some perceptible tiredness there but how much more you can expect from men in their 60’s. The set list included all the best known hits but also some gems like: “Kings and Queens” and “Lord of the Things”. It was great to see that after all those problems Tyler and Perry did fine with each other but it has to be said that at times there was a kind of “freezing” atmosphere on stage between those two. They have had serious problems between them in the past for many occasions but hopefully they can work things out once again and we’ll see still another Aerosmith album get released some day?